Miniature celestial direction detection system

Abstract

A celestial direction finding system. The system includes an inclinometer, at least one camera for imaging both the daytime sky and the nighttime sky and a computer programmed with a sun, moon and star catalog and algorithms for automatically determining directions based on positions of celestial bodies imaged by at least one camera and incline positions measured by the inclinometer. In a preferred embodiment all of the above features are combined in a single battery operated miniature celestial direction finding module. Geographical positions of nearby objects can be determined with the addition of a rangefinder and knowledge of the geographical position of the camera. The geographical position of the system in preferred embodiments can be determined with the addition of a GPS unit.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims the benefit of patent application Ser. No. 11 / 604,133, Celestial Compass, filed Nov. 24, 2006 and Ser. No. 12 / 283,785, Portable Celestial Compass filed Sep. 15, 2008.FEDERAL SUPPORTED RESEARCH[0002]The present invention was made in the course of work under contract number N00178-08-C-0019 with the United States Navy and the United States Government had rights in the invention.FIELD OF INVENTION[0003]The present invention relates to direction detection systems, especially to such systems designed for use in determination of precise locations of targets.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONTheodolites[0004]A theodolite is and instrument for measuring both horizontal and vertical angles. In modern theodolites, the reading out of the horizontal and vertical circles is usually done electronically. The readout is done by a rotary encoder, which can be absolute, e.g. using Gray codes, or incremental, using equidistant light and dar...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0021]To prove the advantages of the present invention Applicants have actually built and successfully tested a two-camera prototype unit. This unit has been combined with an off-the-shelf military binocular unit (the Victor 21 stabilized binoculars) designed for use with a magnetic compass and a range finder for target localization. The binoculars include a line of sight stabilization feature to eliminate movement and jitter of the laser beam.

[0022]This embodiment basically supplements the magnetic compass to provide a much more accurate target designator. The prototype unit reduces the target localization error from about 10 to 17 milliradians (which corresponds to an error of 50 to 85 meters at 5 km) down to 1 milliradian, or 5 m at 5 km range. Hardware mounted on the binoculars consists of a daytime camera with a 180 degree fisheye lens (for viewing the sun), and a separate nighttime camera (for viewing

Problems solved by technology

Magnetic compasses are typically accurate to only one degree, and the presence of steel or other local disturbances will often reduce accuracy of the magnetic compasses to several degrees or render them useless.

Therefore, if positioning of a target depends on the use of a magnetic compass, substantial position errors could likely res

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